In our society, police officers have been called upon to ensure compliance with the law and preserve social order. To complete this task, there are situations in which officers must use force. Since they must use force in some situations and because not every citizen is cooperative with the police, they are at risk for injury. Multiple studies have shown that tasers are beneficial to police officers in many ways, including a reduction in officer injuries. Most studies, however, observed injuries in only a few departments before and after implementation. This study examines whether or not agencies that authorize the use of tasers have lower injury rates compared to agencies that do not authorize the use of tasers in a large sample. This will be done through a cross-sectional research design using secondary data analysis. The data for this study comes from two sources, the 2008 Uniform Crime Reports and the 2007 Law Enforcement Management Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey. Results showed that the authorization of tasers by police departments was not a significant predictor of police injury rates. Although it is not a significant predictor in this study, an argument can still be made that tasers are effective at reducing injuries to police officers.

abstract: Correctional officers are increasingly being trained in evidence-based practices and the willingness of officers to implement what they have learned is crucial for organizational reform. Most of the literature in this area has examined officer attitudes about rehabilitation and punitiveness. Left out are additional characteristics, such as self-control, that may affect an officer’s receptivity to learn and implement new techniques. The present study examines officer receptiveness to motivational interviewing using 280 surveys administered to correctional officers tasked with both delivering and supervising program delivery to inmates within the Arizona Department of Corrections. Three broad questions are asked: 1) Are officer attitudes about punishment associated with receptivity toward implementing rehabilitative techniques? 2) Are officer levels of self-control associated with receptivity toward implementing rehabilitative techniques? and 3) Is the association between officer attitudes toward punishment and receptivity toward implementing rehabilitation techniques moderated by officer self-control? The results suggest that punitiveness and self-control both have statistically significant direct effects on correctional officer receptivity to training and that self-control does not moderate the relationship between punitiveness and receptivity to training. However, these findings could be due to limitations in the present study’s sampling and statistical methods. Policy implications and future research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2018

Denna studie är gjord med syftet att utforska hur specialistofficerare i Flygvapnet ser på sin profession. Fokus ligger på människorna och vilka frågor rörande professionen som de upplever som viktigast just nu. På grundval av detta syfte valde vi att göra en kvalitativ intervjustudie inspirerad av Grounded Theory. Respondenterna var aktiva specialistofficerare i Flygvapnet, handplockade för att säkra spridning i grad, inriktning, organisationsenhet, förbandstillhörighet, nivå, tjänstgöringsort och kön. Både grundutbildade specialistofficerare och omgalonerade NBO-officerare deltog. Respondenterna utstrålade en trygghet i sina roller och visade på stort intresse och engagemang för sitt expertisområde, samt en stolthet över den djupa yrkesskicklighet som är deras signum.  Förbättringsområden som efterfrågades var tydliga karriärvägar på alla nivåer, en organisation som är i balans med det rådande trebefälssystemet, centrala styrningar rörande befordran och omgalonering, individuell uppföljning och bedömning, samt en fungerande informationsspridning. Mycket arbete pågår redan i Flygvapnet och Försvarsmakten för att komma tillrätta med flera av dessa spörsmål, men detta visade sig inte vara känt ute i organisationen. Den samlade bilden är en framtidstro och indikation på att etablerandet av trebefälssystemet drivs framåt, särskilt av de grundutbildade specialistofficerare och officerare som genom sin förståelse för systemet driver utvecklingen i takt med att de bemannar organisationen.

Illegal drug use is perceived as immoral, criminogenic, and an unhealthy practice for decades under the discourse sustaining drug prohibition. Those who apply prohibition laws on the front lines are narcotic police officers, particularly the ones who work in narcotic squads. Based on the specific context in which these individuals work in, perceptions and meanings on drug prohibition and illegal drug use will emerge. This project will explore drug enforcement officer’s perceptions on Canadian drug legislation and illegal drug use through the mobilization of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of phenomenology and social problems theory.

Este estudio examina el impacto de los anuncios de cambios de Gerente General o Chief Executive Officer (por sus siglas en ingles CEO) en los retornos accionarios de las principales empresas que cotizan en la bolsa limeña. Se emplea la metodología de análisis de eventos con una muestra de 22 anuncios desde el año 2000 hasta el 2015. Los resultados muestran que los anuncios de cambios de CEO provocan una reacción en los participantes del mercado, viéndose reflejado en el cambio de patrón de los retornos de cada firma, días antes y después del anuncio. Teniendo como resultado para algunas firmas, retornos acumulados positivos y para otras firmas retornos negativos, ello depende de la valorización que el mercado le da al nuevo CEO. Este resultado está acorde con la literatura, la cual nos brinda 3 hipótesis que explican porque son más o menos valorizados los CEOs por el mercado. La hipótesis de la capacidad, sostiene que los gerentes tienen diferentes habilidades, por consiguiente la empresa busca el mejor talento disponible para la dirección de la misma, respondiendo el mercado de manera positiva. Por otro lado, para las empresas que obtuvieron retornos anormales negativos, la teoría de la información indica que para los participantes, el cambio de CEO, es una revelación de información de una gestión de bajo rendimiento. Por último, para la teoría scapegoat o de sustituibilidad, los retornos accionarios no deberían cambiar su patrón, puesto que el CEO es sustituible y todos los gerentes poseen las mismas habilidades.

SAPS is currently implementing an EAP. Supervisors are an important link in the EAP process because they are the first persons to identify a troubled employee and to refer the employee to the EAP. Owing to her knowledge of an EAP and her interest in supervisory training, the researcher was asked to assist with the development of a supervisory training programme. The researcher has been employed as a social worker in the SAPS for ten years. In practice it happens that commanders refer troubled employees to the EAP when the commanders do not know what else to do with the troubled employees. At that stage the problems that the employees experience are of such a nature that long-term therapy is needed to attend to them. At times the commanders will act as social workers instead of referring the employee to the EAP. The researcher wanted to establish empirically what the role, knowledge and the attitude of commanders within the SAPS are regarding the EAP. The researcher decided to explore the topic by means of a literature study regarding the EAP in the SAPS and supervisory training and to interview several experts in the EAP in the SAPS and two experts in private organisations. An interview schedule was compiled and tested on one respondent. The information gained from the interview was sufficient and the researcher could go ahead with the data collection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two percent (2%) of the commanders in area West-Metropole. The researcher interviewed one (1) Senior superintendent, two (2) Superintendents, four (4) Captains and three (3) Inspectors. None of the respondents had previous training in the EAP. A stratified random sample was used to select the respondents. From the information gathered from the respondents, the researcher achieved the objectives of the study and provide answers to the three (3) research questions, namely: • What is the knowledge of SAPS commanders regarding the EAP? • What is the knowledge of SAPS commanders regarding their role within the EAP? • What is the attitude of SAPS commanders towards the EAP? The researcher determined that the respondents had limited knowledge regarding the EAP and the services rendered by the EAP professionals in the SAPS. The respondents all knew that they had to refer the troubled employee to the EAP but some of them first tried to be the social worker before they referred to the EAP. Therefore it is important that the distinctive roles of the commander/supervisor and the EAP are identified. All the respondents felt positive towards the EAP in the SAPS and said that they self would make use of the services of the EAP. Although the researcher could not generalise the findings, sufficient information was provided to make the following valuable recommendations: recommendations regarding the content of a supervisory training programme, the marketing of the services rendered by the EAP in the SAPS and the steps that could be taken to ensure confidence in the EAP. / Dissertation (MSD (Employee Assistance Programme))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Correctional Officers are responsible for responding to emergency/crisis situations in correctional settings. Research shows that their work is characterized by numerous psychological stressors that vary by degree and intensity, which can lead to compromised job performance and, ultimately, job burnout. Despite the increased attention directed to the problem of occupational stress in first responders among other professions over the past several years, virtually no investigations have focused on correctional officer resilience. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify whether select positive personal variables (i.e., hope, optimism, social support) are associated with increased resilience, (b) determine the extent to which individual resilience acts as a protective factor against job burnout, (c) ascertain whether resilience serves as a significant mediator between hope, optimism and social support and reduced burnout, and (d) utilize the findings to make suggestions for future interventions and research in this area. By identifying specific individual characteristics that increase resilience and protect correctional officers against job burnout, it is expected that more efficacious approaches can be identified to enhance stress reduction and management.

The thesis presents an analysis of the area of further education and personal development of local government employees, in particular of employees at Prague City Hall (MHMP). The focus is aimed primarily at mentoring project in MHMP, its principles and guidelines, there are listed the advantages and disadvantages of such a system and possible improvements. Based on identified weaknesses in the education strategy of MHMP the thesis suggests a training programme designed to improve the skills of leading managers in the areas of effective leadership and the staff motivation.

Since, the available informational and technological resources constitute a source of prosperity and differentiation for the organisations, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is becoming more crucial and vital. The thirty years of the CIO's existence have shown a path of changes and difficulties on defining and establishing the particular role within the organisational context. The present study examines the CIO role evolution over the last thirty years, analyses the CIO role at the present time and discusses the CIO role in the future. The examination of the evolution of the CIO role identifies four main areas of interest that are used as the conceptual framework of the study. These areas relate to business strategy, innovation and competitive advantage, relationships building and external environment. Based on a qualitative research approach, nine case studies of existing CIOs are conducted and analysed from the private and the public sector. The analysis provides insights about the responsibilities of the CIOs, currently, regarding each one of the role aspects and the furthermore, particular responsibilities for these aspects. The results of the analysis demonstrate that within the CIO role responsibilities there are activities such as active participation in the strategic planning, exploitation of information management as an enabler of innovation, active facilitation of consultation processes with the stakeholders and finally, networking with outside organisations such as suppliers and customers but also networking with peers to share best practices. Regarding the future of the CIO role, it is argued that the CIO role includes responsibilities relating to technology management and it is counterproductive to separate these responsibilities to another C-level executive such as a CTO. Finally, it is argued that the CIO role enhances the dynamic capabilities of the organisation by helping it to improve its learning processes and the way it transforms its information resources. The results of the study have implications to both industry and academia. The proposed CIO role model could be used by industry as a guideline for the job description of the role in question, as well as an evaluation scheme for the post holders. With respect to academia, the proposed role model could be used to identify the skills necessary for a CIO and thus, to help inform areas in which university educational programmes should focus on.

A current trend that has emerged as a result of the information age is information-seeking behavior. From individuals to large social institutions, information-seeking behavior is utilized to attain a wide variety of goals. This body of work investigates the information-seeking behaviors of police officers who work in police stations in the Turkish National Police force. The study utilizes Leckie et al.’s (1996) model of information-seeking behavior of professionals. The findings indicated that police officers initially consulted their personal knowledge and experience. Next, officers rely upon their colleagues and then official documents. These information sources were consulted in the context of both conducting tasks and staying current. However, contrary to expectation, they rarely consulted informants. In addition police officers rarely consulted printed journals, libraries, books and attendance at conferences as information sources. The results of this study show that there were significant differences in the information sources used by police officers based on their gender in the context of staying current. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in the context of conducting police station tasks, by gender. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences in the information sources used by police officers based on their educational level. There were significant differences in the use of information sources by age, service years in police stations and service years in policing in the context of conducting police station tasks. Lastly, the results of this study indicated that service years in policing and the roles in police station were significantly correlated with the information sources used by police officers regarding staying current. This body of work offers insight into the factors that guide the information-seeking behaviors of police officers.